Amid the ongoing controversy over the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding of $21 million for increasing ‘voter turnout’ in India, Congress said on Friday that the “funds narrative” was perpetrated by the BJP-led government to divert attention from its own sins of using foreign funds to destabilise the previous Congress governments.

Notably, following US President Donald Trump’s admission to attempts by former US governments to influence elections in India, the BJP hit out at Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for allegedly acting as a “tool for foreign agencies” and aligning with global networks to undermine the country’s interests.

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Addressing a press conference, Congress’ Chairman of Media and Publicity Department Pawan Khera said, “The entire ‘$21 million USAID funds narrative’ perpetrated by the BJP, Modi government’s Ministers, its Economic Advisor, IT Cell head, the RSS-BJP ecosystem and a section of the BJP-friendly media was planned to divert attention from their own sins of using foreign funds to destabilise Congress governments in India, including the UPA.”

Citing a report in the media in this connection on Friday, he said the truth has come out that the ‘$21 million USAID funds’ were not given to India but to Bangladesh. “Official documents prove that Modi ji’s best friend Trump had perhaps intentionally or unintentionally made a faux pas through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

But the fact that the RSS-BJP ecosystem shamelessly latched on it, without examining the facts, tells you that they wanted to hide their own acts of commissions in damaging India’s democracy,” Khera said.

Attacking the BJP and RSS, he said, “Indira Gandhi was right when she pointed out to the ‘foreign hand’ by BJP’s ideological forefathers and the Janata Party. It is no secret that the RSS took CIA’s assistance during the Emergency and in the run up to it. RSS-BJP has an abhorrent record of interfering in India’s electoral process, meddling in our democracy and attempting to defile our Constitution.”

Posing a volley of questions in the matter to the ruling dispensation, the Congress leader said, “If the Modi government considers USAID such a ‘pariah’, why then did it partner with them for the Swachh Bharat Mission, where it worked with the Government of India in 73 cities? Why did Atal Innovation Mission, Niti Aayog, in February 2022, announce a new partnership under SAMRIDH initiative with the USAID to improve access to affordable and quality healthcare ?.”

He also asked the Modi government as to why it requested the US administration “multiple times” to get COVID-19 aid worth more than $100 million in 2021. Khera said the Congress has already demanded a “whitepaper” on the USAID funding in India. “Let it be clear, we do not consider global partnerships, developmental agencies, aid mechanisms such as USAID as unscrupulous. It is the BJP who first started the ‘deep state’ narrative and started to demonise USAID. However, we have enough evidence that RSS-BJP has been taking covert assistance from foreign agencies to destabilise Indian democracy and bulldoze our Constitution,” he added.